Page 57 of Three for a Girl

Smoke and antiseptic merged into something unpleasant from Carter. It coated Chad’s tongue, and filled his nostrils. He couldn’t breathe without tasting it, and it thickened into nausea.

He thought of Marc and wanted to recoil from Carter’s touch, but he kept still as gentle fingers prodded the swelling.

“That hurts, though, doesn’t it?”

Chad gritted his teeth at someone other than Romeo’s hand on his neck.

Someone touching him at all.

The hair at his nape bristled, and he resisted the urge to slap Carter’s hand away.

Carter stared deep into Chad’s eyes, and frowned. He tugged Chad’s elbow, walking him away from the car.

“The lights.” He said, as if it was an explanation.

Carter got his phone out again, and switched the light on.

“Keep your eyes on me.”

Chad did, and stared at the blue of Carter’s irises. The light moved from the side of Chad’s face, down to his neck, where it hovered.

“Patient confidentiality,” he said.

“I’m not your patient.”

“You are now. Your throat is swollen, the bruises are faint, reddish in appearance, over a wider area of your neck. You have hemorrhaging in your eyes.”

The way he spoke reminded Chad of a forensic officer. If Romeo had squeezed longer, harder, someone would’ve been speaking about his dead body like that, listing injuries.

He’d be lying naked on a cold table with his name and number tagged on his big toe, photographed, fingernails scraped, throat cut open to see if his larynx had been fractured.

“It’s just a cold.”

“It’s not. Raspy voice is the only similarity. I’d say there’s been some kind of compression to your neck. I’d say you might have been … strangled.”

Chad bit his tongue. An irony twang registered on his taste buds.

“I’m not here to tell you how to live your life, whatever kinks you may have aren’t my business—”

“Kinks? You think strangling is a kink?”

Wasn’t it?Chad had no idea what he was saying.

He didn’t know why his voice had jumped five octaves, or why his chest tightened.

Carter lowered his hand. “I assumed something like that would be consensual?”

He’d always told Romeo if the need got too much, he was there, willing to satisfy the monster one last time.

Romeo would follow after him, he was sure of it. They’d both leave the world together, end their messed-up love story.

Stubborn Juliet.

“It was.” He whispered.

“Did you lose consciousness?”

Chad nodded.

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